NRL News
202.626.8824
dadandrusk@aol.com

Chen Guangcheng Says Retaliation has started against his family

May 11, 2012

A security guard, front, and a policeman walk around an entrance of a hospital where blind Chinese activist Chen Guangcheng is staying for treatment in Beijing, China, Alexander F. Yuan/AP

By Dave Andrusko

Once a deal was supposedly brokered that would allow blind pro-life activist Chen Guangcheng to study abroad, the question supporters asked was what would happen once Secretary of State Hillary Clinton left the country? Would he actually be able to leave China with his family to study, presumably in the United States? And what would happen to other members of his family who are not with him at the hospital in Beijing where he is being treated for an intestinal infection and broken bones in his foot, an injury he incurred when he escaped house arrest April 22?

Accounts in newspapers and websites today remain ominous for the man who exposed China’s brutal policy of forced abortion and forced sterilization.

Chen told the Guardian newspaper that while he is confident of his own safety that does extend to relatives.

  “The crazy retaliation against my family has started,” he told the Guardian by phone. “My sister-in-law was arrested and is now released on bail. They have accused her of harboring a fugitive, but they didn’t say who.”

  Presumably the reference is to his nephew Chen Kegui. He is believed to have been detained after a clash he had with officials who reportedly broke into his home after discovering that Chen had escaped from Dongshigu, Shandong province. According to the Associated Press

“The nephew’s arrest notification allegedly says he is suspected of attempted ‘intentional homicide,’ said Liu Weiguo, a lawyer who volunteered to defend Kegui but has yet to see the notification document himself. Liu said at least one local communist party official was injured in the April 26 fight but no one died.”

A network of activists in China, The Chinese Human Rights Defenders, said around a dozen of Chen’s relatives in the village of Dongshigu are under some form of house arrest, including Chen’s cousin and the cousin’s son, the AP reported.

“Even when the international spotlight is on Chen, his extended family has been cut off from communicating with the outside world, and his nephew is in police custody,” said Wang Songlian, a researcher with the group. “What is going to happen once the spotlight shifts? It is extremely worrying.”

Your feedback is very important to improving National Right to Life News Today. Please send your comments todaveandrusko@gmail.com. If you like, join those who are following me on Twitter at http://twitter.com/daveha

Categories: Uncategorized
Tags: